LINAGES, i^l LAX FAMILY.) 101 



ORDER 21. TTLIACE^E. (LINDEN FAMILY.) 



Trees (rarely herbs), with the mucilaginous properties, fibrous bark, 

 valvale calyx, etc.. of the Mallow Family ; but the sepals deciduous, petals 

 imbricated in the bud, the stamens usually polyadelphous, and the anthers 

 2-celled. Represented in Northern regions only by the genus, 



1. TIL I A, Tourn. LINDEN. BASSWOOD. 



Sepals 5, Petals 5, spatulate-oblong. Stamens numerous ; filaments coher- 

 ing in 5 clusters with each other (in European species), or with the base of a 

 spatulate petal-like body placed opposite each of the real petals. Pistil with 

 a 5-celled ovary, and 2 half-anatropous ovules in each cell, a single style, and a 

 5-toothed stigma. Fruit dry and woody, indehiscent-globular, becoming 1- 

 celled and 1 - 2-seeded. Embryo in hard albumen ; cotyledons broad and thin, 

 5-lobed, crumpled. Fine trees, with soft and white wood, very fibrous and 

 tough inner bark, more or less heart-shaped and serrate alternate leaves (ob- 

 lique and often truncate at the base), deciduous stipules, and small cymes of 

 flowers, hanging on an axillary peduncle which is united to a ligulate mem- 

 branaceous bract. Flowers cream-color, honey-bearing, fragrant. (The clas- 

 sical Latin name.) 



1. T. Americana, L. (BASSWOOD.) Leaves large, green and glabrous 

 or nearly so, thickish ; floral bract usually tapering at base ; fruit ovoid. 

 Rich woods. May, June. Here rarely called Lime-tree, oftener White-wood, 

 commonly Bass wood ; the latter name now obsolete in England. 



2. T. pubescens, Ait. Leaves smaller (2 - 3' long), thinner, and rather 

 pubescent beneath ; floral bract usually rounded at base ; fruit globose, smaller 

 (3" broad) (T. Americana, var. pubescens, Man.) N. Y. to Fla., and west- 

 ward. 



3. T. heteroph^lla, Vent. (WHITE BASSWOOD.) Leaves larger, 

 smooth and bright green above, silvery -whitened with a fine down underneath. 

 Mountains of Penn. to S. 111., and southward. 



T. EUROP/EA, the EUROPEAN LINDEN, several varieties of which are planted 

 in and near our cities for shade, is at once distinguished from any native spe- 

 cies by the absence of the petal-like scales among the stamens. This tree (the 

 Lin) gave the family name to Linnceus. 



ORDER 22. LINACE^E, (FLAX FAMILY.) 



Herbs (rarely shrubs) with the regular and symmetrical hypogynous 

 flowers 4 - Q-merous throughout, strongly imbricated calyx and convolute 

 petals, 5 stamens monadelphous at base, and an S-W-seeded pod, having 

 twice as many cells as there are styles. Represented by the genus, 



1. LIN TIM, Touru. FLAX. 



Sepals (persistent), petals, stamens, and styles 5, regularly alternate with each 

 other. Pod of 5 united carpels (into which it splits in dehiscence) and 5-celled. 

 with 2 seeds hanging from the summit of each cell, which is partly or completely 

 divided into two by a false partition projecting from the back of the carpel, 

 the pod thus becoming 10-celled. Seeds aiiatropous, mucilaginous, flattened. 



